My old AVI files are corrupted and won't play

[iriaZBT]

About half of my video files on my USB drive are now corrupted and will not play. There are thousands of files on the drive (same problem with my back up drive) but so far it looks like only AVI files have been corrupted. In media player I get this message:

Can't play
This file isn't playable. That might be because the file type is unsupported, the file extension is incorrect, or the file is corrupt.
0xc00d36c4

Nothing happens when I try to play any of the videos in VLC.

I tried Format Factory to convert the files into a different formats but the results are not watchable, but at least somewhat playable. just no sound, missing video and stuff.

I have also tried Stellar, ASF-AVI-RM-WMV and Kernel to repair the videos. The best results were from Stellar but it was still jerky, sound was off, artifacts and still missing segments of video.

When I was in Format Factory there was a video info button so I looked at it and this is what I got for one of my videos and the other gave similar info...

General
Complete name : C:\Users\xxxxx_xxx\Desktop\Xxxx_Xxxxx_XxxXxx.avi
Format : MPEG-4 Visual
File size : 349 MiB
FileExtension_Invalid : m4v mp4v

Video
Format : MPEG-4 Visual
Format profile : Advanced Simple@L5
Format settings : BVOP2
Format settings, BVOP : 2
Format settings, QPel : No
Format settings, GMC : No warppoints
Format settings, Matrix : Default (H.263)
Width : 608 pixels
Height : 336 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate : 23.976 (23976/1000) FPS
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Compression mode : Lossy
Writing library : XviD 1.2.0SMP (UTC 2006-01-08)

As you can see from the info near the top, that for some reason the AVI file has been changed to a M4V file. I looked at several different AVIs and all said the same thing...

So I did try changing the extension type to M4V... of course that didn't work...

What changed my AVIs to M4Vs and corrupted them? And all my other video types are ok, no issues...

Thanks for any help if anyone knows what caused this and how I can fix it... to a watchable file...

[netmask56]

Try adding one of the files into MKVToolNix to wrap the original in a MKV container. Then try playing - a very long shot but only takes a few minutes.

[darkknight145]

Have you tried playing the files on another PC to verify whether it's a problem with your PC or the drive?

[TomLes]

There are old good tools for repairing corrupted AVI files - VirtualDub and DivFix++. Both are free and have been designed specifically for AVI files, so might be worth trying them. Also, you may try to fix your AVI files with Ffmpeg, see the guide on this page.

[jagabo]

AVI files do not magically change to M4V files. In all likelihood your files were always M4V but were misnamed with an AVI extension. I recommend you find one that's small enough to upload here (<500 MB) and someone will look at what you have.

[iriaZBT]

Hi!

Thanks for the suggestions, here is what happened...

DivFiX -- This is not an AVI file.

VirtualDub -- The File xxxxx is of an unknown or unsupported file type

Ffmpeg -- could not launch the software (pretty sure b/c of other software I am running and will have to wait for it to finish first)

MKVToolNix -- One file had a warning...

This AVC/H.264 track's timing information indicates that it uses a variable frame rate. However, no default duration nor an external timestamp file has been provided for it, nor does the source container provide timestamps. The resulting timestamps may not be useful.

It did produce a mkv file, but when I tried to play the file all I got was a blank screen, no errors but nothing to watch either.

I tired a another file and I got the same warning and an error...

track 0: mkvmerge encountered broken or unparsable data in this AVC/H.264 video track. Either your file is damaged (which mkvmerge cannot cope with yet) or this is a bug in mkvmerge itself. The error message was:


I also tried the files on 2 other computers with the same results.

I'll attach a file incase someone wants to take a look at it.

Thanks for all the suggestions and help, I appreciate it.

[davexnet]

If you look at the files in a hex editor (HxD, for example) the files contain neither a header nor any index at the end.
Looks like garbage data at this point

[DB83]

I only d/l'd the 2nd file.

If these filenames are representative of all the files then my sympathy level is low - so low that it can be counted as minus.

The files are warez/illegal downloads from, I guess, torrent sites so you ultimately get what you pay for. Nothing.

Maybe they originally played and something went wrong with the transfer to another drive. Maybe they were fake in the first place. Maybe, even, that drive is corrupt with bad sectors etc. since the file I downloaded never got close to 170 mb.

They are gone. Zero. Period. Unless you have a working copy elsewhere then just go back to where you originally got them and get them again. But do not expect further help since that is against forum rules.

[jagabo]

The files contain markers (AVI audio and video chunk IDs) that indicate they were once AVI files but other standard AVI structures are missing. Most critically, there is no AVI Header at the start of the file. Here you can see the beginning of a normal AVI file on the left, one of your files on the right:


[Attachment 50823 - Click to enlarge]

The first four bytes of an AVI file are always "RIFF". You can see that and other plain text field identifiers of other structures in an AVI file on the left. On the right, your file, none of those structures are present. The structures contain information about the width and height of the video, the frame rate, the codecs used, etc. Without those players will not play the file properly.

My guess is the file system was screwed up (very common on USB drives, especially if you don't properly dismount them before unplugging them). I recommend you compare the same file in your backup. If they are identical it means the files were corrupt before you backed them up.

[iriaZBT]

Thank you for everyone help, advice and information. I appreciate your time you spent in looking at the files.